Choosing Web 2.0 Tools for Teaching and Learning By Tom Preskett Connecting formal education to social media/web 2.0 tools is a relatively new area. Educational institutions hope that by purchasing a virtual learning environment (VLE) all of their learning technology needs will be met. However, the world moves fast, and some educators find that our suite of communication and collaboration tools doesn’t cater to our teaching and learning needs as well as they might. Interestingly, VLEs are usually more suited to managing rather than learning (but that’s for another day). When it comes to thinking about social media or web 2.0 tools, we are looking at tapping into the affordances such tools have towards communication and collaboration. Usually the stimulus for such a process comes from seeing or hearing about a particular tools used in a particular context. Firstly, it’s useful to have in mind a set of criteria like the Sloan Consortium’s: AccessUsabilityPrivacy & Intellectual PropertyWorkload & Time ManagementFun Factor Like this:
2012 iMore editors choice awards iMore honors the very best iOS devices and features, news and events, apps and accessories of 2012 They're what change the way you have fun and get things done. What make you replace what's in your pocket, in your lap, on your Home screen, in your workflow, and on your mind. What challenges your preconceptions, has you instantly forget what came before, and make it impossible to imagine how you'd do without them. They're the devices, events, apps, and games that affected us the most, and they're our 2012 editors choice award winners. Device of the year: iPhone 5 The iPhone 5 was rebuilt from casing to processor. iPhone 5 review Story of the year: Tim Cook's Apple Some years it's one single event, one person, one thing, that stands out from all the rest. Failure of the year: Apple online services It would be easy to point the finger at iOS 6 Maps as being the single biggest point of failure for Apple this year. iPhone social app of the year: Twitterrific 5 iPad utility of the year: 1Password 4
Top 8 Web Tools for Teacher's Professional Development I have been recently posting about teacher's professional development using web technologies and each time I do I would get emails asking for the tools I use personally. I compiled a list of the top 8 platforms I use almost daily for expanding my knowledge and staying updated about the topics that interest me the most. Being a graduate researcher in the field of educational technology and from my own experience of several years blogging in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning, I highly recommend the tools below and I personally view them as the most important platforms for growing professionally.
15 Great Mindmapping Tools and Apps Mindmapping is the process of drawing up diagrams that show relations between various ideas, tasks or information. For many of us this shows to actually be a way of taking notes that can be more useful than just writing down keywords or sentences like we do on a to-do list. By drawing mind maps you actually visualize your tasks and how each task can influence each other in a better way, making your brain remember more easily and/or come up with new ideas. The Tools There are various tools for mindmapping out there, both free and paid versions. The ones that require any installation, can be run on all platforms that support Java unless something else is specified. Freemind ↓ I found the application quick to install and very easy to understand, – which is probably why it is one of the more popular. You can download Freemind here. Xmind ↓ Xmind has a more professional business-like look compared to FreeMind. You can download Xmind here. Bubbl.US ↓ Web application. MindMeister ↓ Freeplane ↓ Bookvar ↓
TeacherTube The Big List Of 100 Tools, Tips And Tricks To Work More Efficiently Online By Alyssa Aldersley , visit Buffer . What does it take to be productive? It’s a question I often ask myself and to be honest I don’t have a great answer for it yet. One key discovery I’ve made over the past year or so is that I need to have great habits in place. That’s why I’m working on a solid running routine and on a set wake-up time and sleep time. One other realization I had is that, as I now spend so much of my day working online, there are a heap of new apps being created all the time to help us all become more productive. That’s why I thought of compiling a full list of 100 tools, tips and tricks for you to reflect a bit on your own productivity. Of course, a sure fire way to fail might be to try and use all 100, which Joel pointed out to me when we discussed this post! 10 awesome music sites to get into your zone When Leo recently wrote about Multitasking , one of the most interesting aspects was that music doesn’t actually contribute to us being distracted when we work. 1. 4.
Free Technology for Teachers How To Start Using iTunes U In The Classroom Previously I wrote an article about the incredible potential of iTunes U for both student and staff learning. I posed the question: Why Aren’t We Talking More About iTunes U ? I was blown away by the many positive remarks in response to this article from others that have also experienced the benefits of iTunes U. I was recently asked if I would write a follow up to that post. In essence, the request was for me to help those interested in learning more about iTunes U to take the next step and explore how easy it is to build a course. iBooks Author As an example, I wouldn’t use the terms straightforward and easy when describing iBooks Author. See another Edudemic article by Fred: ‘ The Early Results Of An iPad Classroom Are In In fact, it’s so easy that even this administrator is in the midst of creating his own course. This would be a good option for a teacher that wants to see what iTunes U is all about and how it might work in their classroom. Public Site Manager Collaborate!
iLearn Technology – Integrating technology in the classroom Four Good Alternatives to Clicker Systems One of the benefits of allowing students to bring their cell phones into your classroom is that they can use them to give you anonymous feedback on sensitive questions and questions for which a name isn't necessary. For example, you might just want to take a survey of the average length of time your students spent studying for a quiz or how long it took them to complete an assignment. Here are four alternatives to purchasing clicker systems for your school while still gathering anonymous feedback from students. Socrative is my favorite tool for collecting anonymous feedback from students. Socrative uses cell phones and or laptops (user's choice) for gathering feedback from students. Socrative introduction video (new) from Socrative Inc. on Vimeo. Poll Everywhere is a service that allows you to collect responses from an audience via text messaging. Mobile Presenter Tools from Poll Everywhere on Vimeo.
10 free tools for creating infographics | Infographic Done right, infographics can be a great way to make sense of complex data. The best infographics transform complex information and data into graphics that are both easy to grasp and visually appealing. The only problem is, infographics that look like they were simple to make are often anything but. Exclusive offer: Save 15% on Adobe Creative Cloud now Here, we've selected our top free tools and apps for making infographics. Give these free tools a try and let us know which ones you get on best with on Facebook or Twitter. 01. Visme promises to help you 'speak visually'. 02. Canva is a powerful and easy-to-use online tool that's suitable for all manner of design tasks, from brochures to presentations and much more besides. It features a dedicated infographic maker that you can use for free, with hundreds of free design elements and fonts at your fingertips, and many more premium elements that you can buy for up to $1. 03. Google's chart tools are powerful, simple to use, and free. 04.
8 Things to Look for in An Educational App Picking up the right educational apps to recommend to your students and kids is not an easy task.There are several criterion you need to consider before you can comfortably claim that an app is educational or not. Of course there are no hard and fast rules to follow to be a good app reviewer and app reviewing is not an established science with clear boundaries but what we talk about here are simple conventions. These conventions are developed by experienced educators who , out of their long experience with app reviewing , have developed a sense of what works and what does not for educational settings.
Introducción - Robótica Educativa con Makey-Makey - El cuerpo humano ¿Qué voy a aprender en este tutorial? En este curso aprenderás a utilizar la placa de electrónica Makey-Makey para usarla en el aula con niños desde educación infantil. Para ello, utilizando la Makey-Makey junto con el lenguaje de programación por bloques de Scratch, se va a crear una aplicación educativa para detectar las diferentes partes del cuerpo humano al mismo tiempo que se muestra un mensaje por la pantalla del ordenador. De esta forma estaremos conectando el mundo físico con el mundo digital. Además de aprender a construir la plantilla del cuerpo humano, te enseñamos cómo programarla paso a paso utilizando el lenguaje de programación por bloques de Scratch, así como a modificarla o añadirle nuevas mejoras para poder utilizarla en diferentes materias. Si no conoces Scratch te recomendamos que accedas a los siguientes tutoriales de esta misma plataforma.